1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printing method by which a print with excellent gradation can be provided.
2. Related Background Art
Besides screen printing and roller printing, ink-jet printing has been used as a process for conducting printing on cloth. The ink-jet printing is a plateless system in which neither a screen nor an engraved roller is required, and is hence fit for multi-kind small-quantity production. The techniques required of this ink-jet printing are greatly different from those of screen or roller printing. This is caused by differences in the systems such as the optimum value of viscosity among physical properties of inks used in ink-jet printing is greatly different from that of textile printing inks used in screen printing or the like and is considerably lower, the ink-jet printing requires attention to reliability such as preventing clogging of the head, the so-called additive color process, in which a few inks of different colors are shot on the same position so as to overlap each other, is conducted; and dots of the inks are very small.
Various investigations have thus been attempted as to methods of such ink-jet printing, in particular, from the viewpoint of improvement in coloring ability, prevention of bleeding, and/or the like. With respect to cloths used in such a method, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-59282 discloses an ink-jet printing cloth formed of a hydrophilic fiber material containing 0.1 to 3% by weight of a surfactant. In the case of a cloth subjected to such a treatment, inks are absorbed in the interior of the fiber by diffusion, and so the travelling distance of the inks is comparatively short, and sharp bleeding is hence prevented to some extent. However, such a cloth is unfavorable to improvement in coloring ability because dyes penetrate into the interior of the fiber. Even if the shot-in ink quantity of an ink is increased with a view toward heightening color density, the ink is only absorbed in the interior of the cloth, and the color density on the surface of the cloth cannot be made high.
Even in the case where no surfactant is used, as with the above, the ink is absorbed in the interior of the cloth unless a substance for lengthening the time required to absorb water is applied to the cloth, and the color density on the surface of the cloth cannot be made high.
As described above, the prior art techniques have been able to satisfy individual performance characteristics required of the ink-jet printing process for obtaining excellent prints to some extent, but have been unable to satisfy all the performance characteristics at the same time.